The Garden. Our hope in the agony of Jesus

Now, our Old Testament reading comes from the book of Isaiah, again, this time in Isaiah 51.

And at verse 17 down to 52 and verse 3, we're thinking about the cup.

One of the images that we find in the Garden of Gethsemane where we're going to be today is the idea of the cup.

And we'll hear it here in verse 17 and verse 22.

So let's hear God's word.

Awake, awake, rise up, Jerusalem.

You have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath.

You have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes people stagger.

Among all the children she bore, there was none to guide her.

Among all the children she brought up, there was none to take her by the hand.

These double calamities have come upon you.

Who can comfort you?

Ruin and destruction, famine and sword.

Who can console you?

Your children have fainted.

They lie at every street corner like antelope caught in a net.

They are filled with the wrath of the Lord, with the rebuke of your God.

Therefore hear this, you afflicted one, made drunk but not with wine.

This is what your sovereign Lord says, your God who defends his people.

See, I have taken out of your hand the cup that made you stagger.

From that cup, the goblet of my wrath, you will never drink again.

I will put it into the hands of your tormentors who said to you, fall prostrate that we may walk on you.

And you made your back like the ground, like a street to be walked on.

Awake, awake, Zion.

Clothe yourself with strength.

Put on your garments of splendour.

Jerusalem, the holy city.

The uncircumcised and defiled will not enter you again.

Shake off your dust.

Rise up.

Sit enthroned, Jerusalem.

Free yourself from the chains on your neck.

Daughter Zion, now a captive.

For this is what the Lord says, you were sold for nothing.

And without money, you will be redeemed.

Now let's turn now in our Bibles to Matthew 26.

And we'll read from verse 36 to verse 46.

Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane.

And he said to them, sit here while I go over there and pray.

He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled.

Then he said to them, my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.

Stay here and keep watch with me.

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, my father, if it is possible,

may this cup be taken from me, yet not as I will, but as you will.

Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping.

Couldn't you men keep watch with me for one hour, he asked Peter.

Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

He went away a second time and prayed, my father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away

unless I drink it, may your will be done.

When he came back, he again found them sleeping because their eyes were heavy.

So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, are you still sleeping and resting?

Look, the hour has come and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners.

Rise, let us go.

Here comes my betrayer.

Amen.

This is God's word.

So we're going to spend the next three Sundays in the run-up to Easter thinking about the hope that Jesus brings.

So Matthew 26, 27, 28.

We're going to go today from the garden, next week to the cross, and then Matthew 28 to think about the empty tomb.

And today we're thinking about our hope in the agony of Jesus that we read about.

We know that this past year has been one that for the majority of people has been one of heightened fear of the loss of hope

and where our foundations have been shaken.

And it might be fair to say that in the lives of some economic recovery will come sooner than mental and emotional recovery.

It has been a hard year.

We have, as a society, placed our hope in progress and that technology and advancements will lead to life being better and better.

And in a sense, once again, that dream has been shattered.

The pandemic has cut right across that.

And in fact, we think about globalisation being part of our progress, but that's also a big reason why we have a global pandemic.

And so when our hope is in progress, our hope is being shaken.

Many people, we have placed our hope in comfort.

We don't really think about eternity.

All I have is now.

And what's happening then, if we have no eternal hope beyond,

if all that we have is life to enjoy now, then this year may have been profoundly disturbing,

as we have found so little that we have been able to enjoy.

And perhaps you may have been reminded, maybe for the first time, of your mortality.

As we have experienced collective suffering and loss and restriction,

I wonder if for you, as it has for many, it's presented important questions.

Questions like, what is life all about, really?

What really matters in life?

Have you found yourself reflecting and making changes?

Maybe you've asked yourself, what happens when we die?

If you have been shaken, and if you're looking for solid answers and solid hope,

that's our focus in the run-up to Easter, both our Sunday services and those videos that will be coming out,

the hope of Jesus.

And today we think about hope in the suffering of Jesus.

C.S. Lewis once said that suffering is God's megaphone.

C.S. Lewis.

Perhaps our suffering means we have a greater openness to the reality of God and his truth.

Well, may God's truth and may the hope of Jesus speak into our suffering,

speak into our fear and our uncertainty today.

So we'll be at three locations over three Sundays.

Today, the Garden of Gethsemane.

Next week, the cross and then the empty tomb.

Today, we look at Jesus' agony in Gethsemane as he enters, as it were, the heart of darkness.

The heart of darkness we can scarcely imagine.

And one English writer, William Law, says,

It's as if the sorrows of a lost soul in hell were opening up in the soul of the Redeemer.

But there is hope for us in this.

That because of the agony that Jesus endured as the Saviour,

we can find hope in our fear and darkness so that we are able to worship with joy.

So I want to look at three different aspects of this agony of Jesus in the garden.

First of all, to think about his emotional life.

In verses 36 to 38, B.B. Warfield wrote a classic study called The Emotional Life of Our Lord,

where he went to great lengths to demonstrate the extent to which Jesus, the Son of God,

took on full humanity and as such was subject to all sinless emotions.

We say sinless because Jesus didn't ever experience the emotion of guilt because of a guilty conscience or because of sin.

And Warfield recognises that there are two errors to avoid when we think about the emotional life of Jesus.

On the one hand, we can underplay those emotions,

and then we can be left with a cold and remote and distant, unsympathetic Jesus.

But on the other hand, we can overstate them to the extent that all we see is the humanity of Jesus,

and we neglect the fact that he is also, at one and the same time, God.

So we need to have balance.

Well, here in the Garden of Gethsemane,

we find Jesus in the depths of grief.

Let's look at the language.

Verse 38,

He said to them,

My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.

Verse 37,

He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him,

and he began to be sorrowful and troubled.

There is sorrow, this idea of deep grief.

He is troubled.

There is deep distress in his heart and mind.

He feels overwhelmed.

Again, a deep disturbance.

Similar to the refrain of Psalm 42 that we'll sing at the end.

He feels at the point of death.

Here is a sorrow so deep,

it almost kills him.

See this in distinction from the presentation we often find in the four Gospels of Jesus as profoundly brave.

Brave as he confronts the forces of evil.

Brave as he stands up to opponents and injustice.

Brave as he stands up to the point of grandfather.

It seems different, doesn't it?

The sorrow that he feels now is so different from that bravery.

and consider too maybe you've read stories of of those who have been martyred who've been killed

for their faith and if you look through church history you find accounts of that and you find

some singing praise praying sharing the gospel as they die and it makes us ask the question why

is Jesus now overcome with deep sorrow as he approaches his death why is he now

so fearful and sorrowful well it's not the simple matter of Jesus being afraid of death

what we have is Jesus grief at the kind of death he will endure he will die for sinners as a sacrifice

he will become one with sinners and take the death that we are due he will take on his sinless shoulders

the responsibility for our human evil so as Michael Green puts it it was the sin bearing

that was so terrifying here is Jesus looking ahead and he is anticipating the judgment of God his father

falling on him he recognizes that he will feel abandoned by his father because God is holy

and Jesus will be considered as if he was unholy as he takes on sin and so the jaws of hell are opening in front of Jesus

hell is separation from God and his goodness and that agony almost crushes Jesus

what does that reveal and how does that offer us hope well one thing it certainly reveals

is a stark reminder as Hebrews 3 says there is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God

Jesus knows the penalty for sin and it causes him deep grief sin matters judgment is real

as Jesus feels sorrow to the point of death at taking sin and its punishment let's recognize the urgency for us

of being right with God of seeking forgiveness and peace with God through the sacrifice of Jesus

we also have here a beautiful picture of Jesus humble service the love of Jesus in becoming one of us

he did not need to experience this agony and this fear that was not part of his experience in the glory of heaven

it's only as he came to be one of us only in his mission as the savior does he know this agony

here we see the nature of God's love revealed in Jesus

as Jesus will walk into the deepest darkness so that we might live in the light

we also learn here too about the sympathy of Jesus we know don't we how support groups work

they work because there is a group of fellow sufferers who are able to say

I understand I've been there I know what it feels like

and you recognize that whatever we are going through Jesus says that to us

Jesus entered all the way into our human experience and our suffering he did that for us

to be our sympathetic and loving savior

Jesus has suffered indeed beyond our imagination

he knew how much he would lose as his father turned away from him

Jesus is our sympathetic high priest he both understands our fear and our misery

and he took it on himself and as such he can offer us hope and comfort

one of the images of in a sense of of redemption and salvation we find in the old testament is that of

the kinsman redeemer

most famously in the story of Ruth with Boaz the kinsman redeemer a family member who could pay off your debt

who could secure your release from slavery

Jesus is fully God and Jesus becomes one with the human family

Jesus is the only way of rescue from our guilt our sin our fear of death

he has come to be that redeemer that rescuer to pay the price

do you see the loving cost of our salvation that it cost the life of Jesus

how do we respond may we run to him may we bring our tears to him and may we find eternal hope

from him as we see the agony of his emotional life

let's move from there to think about the agony of Jesus

as he seeks companions

in suffering

here's another aspect of Jesus true humanity

that in deepest needs he sought out friends who would stand with him

so in verse 36 we discover

that he comes

with the remaining disciples by this point Judas has betrayed him

and eight are told sit here while I go over there and pray

but then in verse 37 he brings his inner three

Peter and James and John

to come along with him

that they would be close enough to him

for prayer and for support

and he invites them into his experience

he said to them

my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death

stay here and keep watch with me

he shares his agony with them

and invites them to support him

the gospel writers emphasize

that Jesus stands

suffers

and dies

alone

and we begin to see it here in the garden

as his friends fail him

what do we see

the friends

these three friends

they knew Jesus to stress

they heard him ask for help

they could hear his agonized praying

and yet in verse 40

Jesus returned his disciples

and found them sleeping

verse 41 he asked Peter

he said to Peter

watch and pray

so you will not fall into temptation

the spirit is willing

but the flesh is weak

here does Jesus

beginning his descent

into his personal hell

and he goes there

knowing loneliness

will experience loss

the only one who doesn't deserve it

will suffer immensely for us

he will walk that road

and he will walk it alone

Wendy Alsup

wrote a book last year

last year called

Companions in Suffering

and she shares powerfully of her story

she writes of divorce

of having to reallocate

to a different part of the country

and of battling with cancer

and she observes

perhaps we know this to be true

in our own experience

that suffering

has an isolating fact

we discover that many friends

can't or won't enter in

many friends struggle to stay the course

as suffering goes for a long time

whether that's grief

or whether that's long term illness

and so Wendy Alsup

she talked about the strength

for her

in having a trusted group

of fellow sufferers

not that they shared

the exact same experience

but they knew what pain was

and they knew what loss was

so they were able to emphasise

so that they could share

the journey together

it gets to what Paul writes

in 2 Corinthians chapter 1

2 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

God comes to bring

his people comfort

so that as we know

that grace and that comfort

in our life

we might bring that grace

and comfort to others

we have collectively

at different periods

and to different extents

lived with enforced isolation

and that is suffering

in and of itself

isn't it

many are having to suffer

alone

to go through huge things

in their life

and to go through it alone

and so as the Christian church

there's always that challenge to us

can we be that friend

who will stay the course

can we be that friend

who will offer the word of comfort

who will offer the shoulder

to cry on

and then as we think about

the garden of Gethsemane

where does that give us hope

as we suffer

think about this

why did Jesus go through

his fear

his sorrow

ultimately his death

and why did he do that

alone

he did that

the Bible tells us

so that he might

befriend us

he took sin

and judgment

and hell

for us

so that he might

show us

love

and welcome us in

with the result

that as J.C. Ryle

puts it

no one

need ever say

I have no friend

to turn to

so long as Christ

is in heaven

do we understand

and appreciate

that even

in our isolation

if our faith

is in Jesus

we have

his presence

and his power

and his peace

with and for us

do you know

the comfort

and the hope

of Jesus

take your tears

and your fears

and your sadness

to him

you don't need

to suffer alone

and remember

this too

that while

Jesus'

friends

failed him

Jesus

did not

fail them

in the garden

as ultimate

darkness

was coming

upon Jesus

Jesus

did not

abandon

us

rather

Jesus went

into the

darkness

and he

died

for us

and since

that is

true

we can

know

that he

will not

abandon

or forsake

his friends

his followers

in our

suffering

in our

darkness

cling to him

even as you

take comfort

in the fact

that he

in his

powerful loving

hands

takes hold

on you

one last

thing to

consider about

the agony

of Jesus

and that

takes us

to his

prayer

as so

often we

discover in

the gospels

Jesus at

crucial moments

in his life

turns towards

his father

in prayer

and of course

if Jesus

the sinless

son of God

who enjoyed

perfect fellowship

with his father

of Jesus

felt the need

to pray

how much

more

is that

true for

us

three

details

to notice

you see

he prays

three times

the words

recorded twice

let's read

again

verse 39

my father

if it is

possible

may this

cup be

taken from

me

yet not

as I

will

but as

you will

three

details

to notice

first of

all

how does

he address

God

he calls

him

my

father

and this

is the

one place

that Matthew

in his

gospel

records

this warm

address

Abba

the emphasis

here is

still on

that loving

relationship

that Jesus

son enjoys

with God

the father

and that

explains the

agony

for Jesus

Jesus

who knew

the eternal

and unbroken

sense of his

father's love

on the cross

that love

of the father

would be

intercepted

as he became

the sin bearer

and all Jesus

could feel

was the weight

of judgment

what about

his request

what does

Jesus

pray for

if

it's

possible

may this

cup

be taken

from

let's think

first of all

what is the

cup

takes us

back to

Isaiah

Isaiah 51:17

51

verse 17

it says

rise up

you who have

drunk

from the

hand of

the Lord

the cup

of his

wrath

that's what

the cup

is

the wrath

of God

against

sinful

rebellious

enemies

now

Jesus

is the

only one

who doesn't

deserve

to take

that cup

but he is

willing to

drink it

and he

anticipates

drinking it

to the

dregs

and that

brings the

agony and

the sorrow

and the grief

and so there

is that

searching

request

is there

any other

way

for your

redeeming

purpose

to be

completed

is there

any

alternative

to my

becoming

sin

to my

becoming

a curse

to my

being the

sacrifice

three times

he prays

and the

same

answer

the same

silence

there is

no

other

way

Jesus

has come

to be

the

saviour

and the

only way

the plan

of salvation

can be

carried out

if he

takes our

place

takes our

sin

and takes

our

punishment

the last

detail to

see

is the

will of

Jesus

or indeed

the wills

of Jesus

verse 39

yet not as I

will

but as

you will

there is

a mystery

here

the gospels

are very

clear the

new testament

is very

clear Jesus

is the

holy and

sinless

son of

God

and

Jesus

is fully

human

Jesus

could be

tempted

and here

as a

human being

he wanted

to avoid

being made

sin

he wanted

to avoid

feeling

forsaken

he knew

anticipated

how deep

and distressing

that darkness

would be

it's a sorrow

that almost

kills him

but what we

see again

in our

loving saviour

is that in

his human

will

he wrestles

to obey

and to

fully submit

and this

is our

hope

that Jesus

prayed

not my

will

but may

your

will

your

eternal

will

to save

sinful

broken

people

be done

in the

intensity

of our

temptations

we feel

it in a

limited way

because we

all too

quickly

fall

but

Jesus

in the

story of

Jesus

the pressure

kept

building

the devil

was doing

his worst

to derail

Jesus

from the

plan of

salvation

but he

never

caved in

he is

like us

and that

he can

be tempted

he is

unlike us

and he

never

sinned

and he

is a

worthy

saviour

for us

have you

ever

wrestled

with

unanswered

prayer

with pain

and with

fear

that

continues

Jesus

has

Jesus

understands

come to

him

see

remember

embrace

his love

for you

he heard

God's

no

for you

so that

you could

hear

God's

yes

when you

come

to trust

in

Jesus

and

remember

too

that

the

agony

of

this

garden

undoes

the

agony

of

another

garden

remember

at the

beginning

of the

Bible

the

garden

of

Eden

Adam

and

Eve

they

say

to

God

not

your

will

but

mine

be

done

and

they

reach

for

the

forbidden

fruit

and

sin

and

misery

and

death

has

been

the

outcome

but

here

to

undo

all

that

went

wrong

in

that

garden

Jesus

comes

as the

true

and the

better

Adam

and he

prays

not my

will

but yours

be done

and he

reaches

for the

cup

to take

the penalty

for our

rebellion

he

he

becomes

he

becomes

to drink

agony

in our

place

so that

we

might

again

enjoy

friendship

with

God

so that

we

might

have

access

to

our

father

in

prayer

that

we

might

know

unbreakable

love

that

we

might

have

eternal

resurrection

hope

and

Jesus

having

received

that

answer

verse

45

returned

to the

disciples

and said

are you

still

sleeping

and

resting

look

the

hour

has

come

the

son

of

man

is

delivered

into

the

hands

of

sinners

rise

let

us

go

here

comes

my

betrayer

Christ

walks

obediently

towards

his

arrest

and

towards

the

cross

and

that's

where

we'll

be

next

week

so

here

is

hope

in

the

agony

of

Jesus

in

the

garden

that

he

went

through

that

agony

for

us

and

for

our

salvation

he

went

through

that

that

he

might

be

the

companion

you

need

in

the

suffering

you

face

and

remember

the

praying

Lord

Jesus

and

recognize

that

he

prays

for

his

people

today

and

he

will

always

pray

for

us

until

we

are

home

in

perfect

joy

and

peace

and

love

and

life

with

him

rest

later

Because

you